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HOSTAGE

Family taken hostage in Swiss gold heist

A family were taken hostage in Switzerland on Friday to force the head of a precious metals company to hand over large amounts of gold, police said.

Family taken hostage in Swiss gold heist
File photo: Thomas Coex/AFP

The hostages were later released unharmed, while a manhunt was underway for the six hostage-takers in neighbouring France, the regional Neuchatel police said in a statement.

“At dawn, six individuals took a family hostage in Chaux-de-Fonds,” in western Switzerland, the statement said.

Police spokesman Pierre-Louis Rochaix told AFP the family consisted of a father, mother and a child aged around 10.

 “They were taken hostage at their home,” he said, adding that no physical violence appeared to have been used.

The father, who heads precious metals company Cendror, was forced to go to his office to fetch “a large quantity of gold” and hand it over to the hostage-takers, the police statement said.

The kidnappers had taken the man with them to an area called Biaufond, where they left him before heading towards the nearby French border.

Once the police were notified, a “large contingent” was deployed, first in Switzerland and subsequently in France, where national police are searching for the perpetrators, the statement said.

A Neuchatel prosecutor has opened criminal proceedings in the case, it added.

HOSTAGE

Swiss hostage ‘killed by jihadis in Mali’: ministry

A Swiss woman being held hostage in Mali "was apparently killed by kidnappers... about a month ago", Bern's foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.

Swiss hostage 'killed by jihadis in Mali': ministry
The information was provided by Sophie Petronin (above), who returned to France on Friday after four years in captivity. Photo: Stringer/AFP
“It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of our fellow citizen,” foreign affairs chief Ignazio Cassis said, adding that “I condemn this cruel act and express my deepest sympathy to the relatives”.
   
Switzerland did not release the name of the hostage who had been killed, but said they had been held by the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), an alliance comprising several jihadist groups aligned to al-Qaeda that has claimed responsibility for some of the biggest attacks in the Sahel region.
   
The foreign ministry (DFAE) said that “information about the killing was obtained by the French authorities from the recently released French hostage” Sophie Petronin, who returned to France on Friday after being freed by the Malian insurgents following almost four years in captivity.
 
   
Swiss authorities “are making every effort to find out more about the circumstances of the killing and the whereabouts of the remains,” the DFAE said, adding  that it “demands handing over” of the hostage's body.
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